Well, I’m at least a good half year away from going on my Flight Instructor check-ride, but now that I’m volunteering at the Air & Space Museum I’m getting my first taste of what it’s like to teach someone how to fly an airplane. Last Friday, I was checked-out in the Cessna 150 interactive exhibit at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. For most of the day I was helping control the crowd waiting to get into the one airplane that visitors can actually get into at the museum, where I was mostly showing little kids what the different control surfaces on an airplane do.

Cessna 150Towards the end of the day as we were closing up the exhibit I helped our last visitor, a young girl who was maybe twelve or thirteen get into the Cessna. Since her Mom didn’t want to sit in the plane I let the aspiring pilot sit in the right seat as I climbed in and sat in the left. I showed her what all the controls do and simulated a short little flight from takeoff to landing. I let her fly the airplane and let her pretend to use the radio to make position reports. I’m not quite sure how inspiring it was for her, but it really reaffirmed my desire to be an instructor. Here I was giving a wide-eyed aviation enthusiast her first “flight” lesson, what an incredible privilege. Hopefully some day she’ll realize her dream, earn her wings and fly a fighter jet, a commercial airliner, or maybe even be one of the first astronauts to land on Mars. Hehe, her first “instructor” has high hopes for her.